Corporate Social Responsibility and Intimate Partner Violence

During my time in college, I recall learning about corporate social responsibility (CSR) in several of my business and marketing classes. I would read about this term in newspapers and magazines. At the time, having never worked for a corporate company, I almost read it as a buzzword, a signal that a company was serious about treating people well. The last two years and the “great resignation” may have inadvertently spotlighted corporate social responsibility, yet I don’t hear the term often used in this discussion.

In his 2001 report, what do we mean by corporate social responsibility? Lance Moir poses the following: Responsibility for what and to whom and who calls for firms to be socially responsible? More than twenty years since this article was published, CSR falls into four categories: environmental, ethical, philanthropic, and economical. In the confines of the four CSR categories and as it relates to employees who are experiencing intimate partner violence, here is my response to Moir’s questions.

Employees who are survivors and victims are calling on corporations to:

• take on the responsibility for providing a safe environment for victims
• fair treatment and respecting the experiences and diverse circumstances of victims (ethical)
• financially contributing to outside organizations that support victims and survivors (philanthropic)
• and, closing the gender and race wage gap within their organization (economic).

While CSR categories have expanded to include the health and wellness of employees, that can vary from company to company. However, this is another opportunity to support survivors and victims through employee assistance programs, mental health services, and flexibility in the work environment.

I urge companies to take another look at their corporate social responsibility initiatives and consider what and whose voices and experiences are missing. Ask your team, “how can the organization better support its most vulnerable employees?” “What are the steps we can take to address intimate partner violence and its impact on our company?” Small changes can have a significant impact.